It is sometimes too tempting to take way too much from the first game of the season. Last year at this time the Crew looked unstoppable. But Big Soccer is all about going overboard, for either good or bad, so let's not allow reason to get in the way of being excited over some of the players we saw this week. I'll try to keep this up on a weekly basis, and I hope others will chime in and either provide their opinions of who should or should not be on the All-American 11 list, or simply give their opinions of my opinions.. This should be fun. Without further Adu, this week's list: Adin Brown: How do you give the guy who gave up 3 goals the GK nod? Because if it weren't for Brown, it would have been 4 or 5. The best save of the night? Brown's 1v1, one-armed stop on Carlos Ruiz immediately followed by Brown's 3-point, one-armed takedown of Ruiz with the other arm. Good stuff. Corey Gibbs: He's as good as advertised. Chris Albright: Albright was not involved on either goal conceded by the Galaxy (while Califf did himself no favors on either goal), and he looked very good both defensively and going forward from his right back position. Jeff Parke: Who? Yeah, Bob Bradley snuck another gem into the league with this kid from the soccer hotbed known as Drexel. He really looked silky smooth on the Metrostars back line. Nick Garcia: The Fire led the league in shots last year, but looked anemic last night against Kansas City's defense. It's hard to pick out one player from KC's back four, but Garcia shut down everything in his neighborhood. Mark Lisi: All this guy does is set his teammates up on a platter. Lisi looked awesome from his defensive midfield position. Brian Mullan: Really the only attack San Jose could get going against a very good 5-man midfield from DC United. Earni Stewart: DC United's midfield was a complete team effort, but Earnie looked like a different player than the one we saw last year. Jovan Kirovski: I don't care if the Galaxy listed him as a forward. He looked and played exactly like the attacking midfielder in a 4-5-1, and he was very good against the Revs. Alecko Eskandarian: Seriously, what a shot. John Wolyniec: I don't understand why more people don't love this guy. He's given a full effort every time I've seen him on the field, and against Columbus he actually looked like a dangerous soccer player.
ill give ya pretty much all of those...though i watched the whole dc game...im not sure about ernie stewart. ive never been a fan, and he really didnt do much on saturday. elecko and jaimi did most of the work, all behind the shadow of the all mighty adu(who does look very promising). chris albright looked real good, i wish mls fantasy league had him listed as a defender or i would have bought him for my team, but i wont get the defensive bonuses of la playin well at the back. forza inter
You've got to consider Frankie Hejduk in a midfield role. He was all over the place for Columbus, especially in the first half. Also, Eddie Gaven was dangerous for NY/NJ. I disagree with forza inter on Earnie Stewart. He belongs; he did not get beat and played smartly as expected. One other player to consider is Sasha Victorine. He made several good runs and seemed to combine well with his teammates.
Kirovski is also a possibility at Forward, and eddie Gaven had a really good game for the Metros. I would also pick Joe Cannon ahead of Adin Brown based on yesterday's performances.
adin brown did play well, i wish his d didnt let him down so bad....kirovski had a good game and a nice goal. victorine played very well all game also, i could use him on my fantasy team. and, i dont think i was wrong about ernie....he did not see nearly enough of the ball on saturday to be considered a big contributor. forza inter
I didn't really think Mullan did all that well ... of course, I can't name anybody who did better because i didn't see any other games, so i'll have to trust you. I did think Mulrooney did pretty well in the center for the quakes, though.
Isn't it great that we have US players to argue about belonging on this list? I thought Pat Noonan had some good stretches, agree that Eddie Gaven was good and Mike Magee did what he always seems to do (score). I did not watch enough full games to say much more but I like the way the league looks this year.
The only two games I watched start to finish were DC - SJ and Metro - CBus, but based on the 2nd half in KC I'd probably consider Henry Ring over Brown at GK. There's just something unholy about giving a Best XI nod to someone who gave up three, regardless of how they went in. And one quick note about Parke: Bradley picked him based on a single videotape that Drexel's coach sent to him before the draft. Bob never saw him play in person before he showed up at camp. So, kudos to Lou Meehl for doing the extra work for one of his players. If I was a semi-decent high school player who wanted to play in college and maybe eventually take a shot at MLS, Meehl & Drexel made it on to my campus visit list on Saturday night.
One of my dad's old players played for Drexel for four years and had a great experience. I don't know how long Meehl has been there, but I think it is quite admirable that he went the extra mile for Parke. I agree with GoDC on all accounts - it is great to have this discussion. Noonan is such a tidy player. He makes the right decisions.
Cannon let in a soft goal that was incorrectly disallowed. Seems like Henry Ring would be a good choice for his opening day shutout ...
I thought it was an incorrect call too at first, but after seeing the replay several times, it was the right call. A player coming back in an offside position did a stepover the ball was a part of play.
Nice stepover by Johnson -- I think he was already onside when he did it, although I just watched the replay again, and it was very close.
You gotta consider Demarcus Beasley. He may not have offensively performed but his defense was solid. There were quite a few times when a Josh Wolff through pass looked like it was leading up to a goal only to have the play stopped by Beasley.
I watched it a bunch of times and it was real close. One of those ones where I wish they would give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team.
I just saw two games -- DC vs. San Jose, and Fire vs. KC, but here are my thoughts on players who shined. Moreno -- he was stunning. Convey -- sure he missed the sitter, but he was dynamic. This is his year. DeRosario -- he and Donovan never seemed to establish an understanding, but otherwise I though he showed extremely well. Beasely -- as mentioned earlier. Woolf -- fast and dangerous. Some disapppointments: Mulrooney -- a couple of good passes, largely ineffective. Ralph -- turned into pressure way too often, tried to do too much. Mapp -- never could get untracked. Jacqua -- Fire fans were wondering why he started, and Selowane didn't. They are still wondering.